Devotion
Dealing With Hurt
Frances Taylor
What do you do when someone "sins" against you? No one goes through life without being hurt by someone. Most of the time, the person causing the pain doesn't even realize it. Sometimes the person truly intends the pain. But, what do we do about it? In this gospel passage, Jesus tells his disciples to first go to the person and keep it between the two of them. In this way, the person who has offended the other can explain his/her intent, apologize for any pain caused, and the relationship can be maintained. But what happens when the first thing someone does is go and tell all his/her friends and family members about it? There can be resentment against the guilty party that could be unfounded. I have known of women who have complained and complained about the treatment they have received from spouses or children, bosses or coworkers, and never confronted the person directly. I'm not talking about abuse or abusive situations, but normal slights and offenses that can occur with anyone with whom you spend a lot of time. You then meet the "offending" person at a gathering and everything is "fine." You may still feel a bit of anger at the one who caused your friend or family member such anguish. But the person explains that she finally sat down with the offending person and had a heart to heart talk and everything got ironed out. If those people had first spoken to the offender, it would have been settled a lot sooner and no one else would have been dragged into the argument. Obviously, Jesus also laid out some ground rules if the situation could not be so easily solved. Bring along a couple of witnesses to the confrontation and then if nothing can be resolved bring it to a higher authority. This gospel gives us a good opportunity to think about our own actions and how we can better resolve conflicts in the future.
Prayer
Loving and forgiving God, give us the grace to bring our grievances to the person responsible and not spread gossip or slander without giving the person the opportunity to apologize. May we treat others as you treat us. Amen.
Devotion
Abraham is Father of All
Frances Taylor
There are questions in every age about the importance of the Old Testament for Christians. Abraham is considered to be the Father of Faith for Jews, Christians and Muslims. We forget that it was Abraham who believed in the doctrine of only one God. It is through him and his descendants that this tradition comes down to us. Another fact that we can overlook is that Jesus was Jewish. He was born a Jew, lived as a Jew, died, rose and ascended into heaven as a Jew. Because we believe that he was the Messiah, the Christ, and we follow him, we are called Christian. Without the Old Testament, we wouldn't understand the promise of salvation; we wouldn't understand why it was important for Jesus to be of the family of King David. We would not understand his teaching either, because Jesus quoted from Scripture – the Old Testament – frequently. He told us that he came to fulfill the Scriptures, not to abolish them. In the same way, we can ...
